Actually all 3 Indian centuries, made by Manjerakar, Shastri and Sidhu, in that 88-89 India - West Indies test series were very courageous. All of them took so many blows to the body. There was just no place to hide. They just remind me of what it was to bat against the Windies in the 80s.

Batting against the Windies in the 80s sort of "separated the men from the boys". The physical courage factor slowly went missing from the mid-90s onward (success against Australia and RSA were poor substitutes). Sidhu made a 116 in the last test at Jamaica. Below videos of Sidhu and other Indian batsmen in that 88-89 series give a hint what sort of courage it took.

With the introduction of bouncer restriction rule in the 1991-92, and Umpires/officials slowly getting more strict, combined with fading away of West Indies bowlers, focus moved from hostile fast bowling to accurate fast bowling from mid-90s onwards.

Not that, the likes of Donald, Akram or McGrath were incapable of bowling short-pitched deliveries, but even the hostility of these bowlers at their best in the 90s paled in comparison to the relentless hostility of the Windies bowlers of the 80s. Those Windies bowlers had mastered the skill of bowling short-pitched deliveries.

It is one of the reasons why I put Gooch's 154* even above Lara's 153*. Lara's might have been more flamboyant innings, but the courage factor was significantly higher in Gooch's case.

Allan Border's performance against the Windies in 83-84 when he scored 500+ runs is also under-rated. Same applies to Viv Richard's performance against Pakistan in 80-81 (to my eyes, far tougher performance than any of his exploits against England).

05-05-2013, 11:07 PM

Satyanash89

Afridi's maiden test hundred in the famous Chennai test of 1999 was a genuinely amazing innings. Kind of gets forgotten completely because of Sachin's epic.

Others that come to mind are Steve Waugh's 60 odd against West Indies on one of the greenest greentops ever which was overshadowed by his 200 in the next match, Mahela's 180 against England at Galle recently where none of his teammates were able to hold a bat properly, and Dravid's twin fifties at Jamaica 2006

06-05-2013, 12:08 AM

Prince EWS

Quote:

Originally Posted by robelinda

Yes the SA tour in 97 was on foxtel.

Was actually on Optus wasn't it?

06-05-2013, 12:16 AM

Jono

Yeah would have thought Optus Vision had it. I think I had Optus Vision until mid-to-late 1998 when I switched to Foxtel. Optus Vision was known as the "sports" one and Foxtel the "entertainment" one back then.

Nope Foxtel. Ive uploaded many vids from the series, you can see Foxtel logo. I had both Optus and Foxtel at the time, Optus hardly showed any international cricket, only shield matches, though they did show the 96 tour to India, and highlights of the 96 world cup. Foxtel showed everything else. Was glad when Optus finally stopped showing cricket, I could save money!

Nope Foxtel. Ive uploaded many vids from the series, you can see Foxtel logo. I had both Optus and Foxtel at the time, Optus hardly showed any international cricket, only shield matches, though they did show the 96 tour to India, and highlights of the 96 world cup. Foxtel showed everything else. Was glad when Optus finally stopped showing cricket, I could save money!

I think we've all learned to never question robelinda about anything cricket coverage related ever again.

06-05-2013, 01:18 AM

NUFAN

Although the Fox Sports logo looks eerily similar to the Robelinda2 font so who knows if he's gone and edited it in just to rewrite history.

EDIT - in the 5000th Test duck one.

06-05-2013, 01:20 AM

Burgey

Quote:

Originally Posted by coolkuna

Actually all 3 Indian centuries, made by Manjerakar, Shastri and Sidhu, in that 88-89 India - West Indies test series were very courageous. All of them took so many blows to the body. There was just no place to hide. They just remind me of what it was to bat against the Windies in the 80s.

Batting against the Windies in the 80s sort of "separated the men from the boys". The physical courage factor slowly went missing from the mid-90s onward (success against Australia and RSA were poor substitutes). Sidhu made a 116 in the last test at Jamaica. Below videos of Sidhu and other Indian batsmen in that 88-89 series give a hint what sort of courage it took.

With the introduction of bouncer restriction rule in the 1991-92, and Umpires/officials slowly getting more strict, combined with fading away of West Indies bowlers, focus moved from hostile fast bowling to accurate fast bowling from mid-90s onwards.

Not that, the likes of Donald, Akram or McGrath were incapable of bowling short-pitched deliveries, but even the hostility of these bowlers at their best in the 90s paled in comparison to the relentless hostility of the Windies bowlers of the 80s. Those Windies bowlers had mastered the skill of bowling short-pitched deliveries.

It is one of the reasons why I put Gooch's 154* even above Lara's 153*. Lara's might have been more flamboyant innings, but the courage factor was significantly higher in Gooch's case.

Allan Border's performance against the Windies in 83-84 when he scored 500+ runs is also under-rated. Same applies to Viv Richard's performance against Pakistan in 80-81 (to my eyes, far tougher performance than any of his exploits against England).

Sidhu would have been more worried about getting rogered in prison, wouldn't he?

06-05-2013, 01:26 AM

coolkuna

Quote:

Originally Posted by Burgey

Sidhu would have been more worried about getting rogered in prison, wouldn't he?

:) Honestly, at the time, it looked to me as if he would have fancied his chances in prison better than facing Marshall's persistent bumpers from around the wicket. The video reinforced my thought.

07-05-2013, 02:24 AM

Plumbinfront

Kallis' twin centuries at Cape Town' 10 with a bad back against the then number one side with the series on the line.

07-05-2013, 02:37 AM

Satyanash89

Quote:

Originally Posted by Plumbinfront

Kallis' twin centuries at Cape Town' 10 with a bad back against the then number one side with the series on the line.

Don't think that performance is underrated to be honest.... most people recognize it as probably Kallis' finest effort. It was amazing, no doubt, because Harbhajan was getting vicious turn and bounce from the pitch, and Kallis just reverse swept him with ease. :-O

As good as Kallis was though, I will never forgive Dhoni for what he did that day... we would have won a historic series if we'd got kallis out, but MS for some inexplicable reason went on the defensive and allowed Kallis to get away. :@ Probably just the fear of winning, I guess... just complete **** captaincy